How can a local school bus driver charged with sending porn to students be allowed to drive again?

MONESSEN, Pa. — When Channel 11 News found out police charged a Monessen school bus driver with porn charges, we started digging into his background. That's when we discovered he faced similar charges years ago, and it posed the question: How was he driving a bus?

In 2001, Jack Laforte, of Monessen, was charged with 40 counts of corruption of minors. He was a school bus driver in the Monessen City School District and was accused of sending pornographic material to two 14-year-olds.

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Laforte cut a plea deal with prosecutors and was given accelerated rehabilitative disposition program (ARD) for the case. Because he completed the accelerated rehabilitative disposition program, his case went dark and never showed up on background checks or child abuse clearances ever again.

Laforte was court-ordered as part of the deal to never drive a school bus again, but when the feds indicted him in August with a single count of child porn, Laforte was back in the driver’s seat. This time, he was driving for Pennsylvania Coach Lines in the Monessen City School District, the same job he had nearly two decades ago.

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Channel 11 News did some digging and wanted to find out how Laforte could still be driving school buses despite his previous case.

State police said accepting the diversion program doesn’t constitute as a guilty plea or a conviction, and it won’t show up on any background checks unless specifically searched by law enforcement.

“We would be able to see someone accepted ARD and see what the charge was and any other ancillary stipulations that go with that charge with the ARD,” Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Steve Limani said.

Channel 11 News reached out to Pennsylvania Coach Lines, where Laforte was employed as of last month. The company sent us the following list of background checks and clearances every driver must pass before being hired.

• Act 34 Pennsylvania State Police Clearance
• Act 151 Pennsylvania Child Abuse Clearance
• Act 168 Pennsylvania Sexual Misconduct and Abuse Disclosure release, signed by both our drivers and previous employers
• Act 24 and Act 82, both of which are self-reported arrest and conviction reports
• Act 114 FBI Clearance, which involves fingerprinting and generates a code sent to the school district. Pennsylvania Coach Lines said it is not permitted to obtain these clearances, and would be notified immediately if a driver was not cleared.

Laforte has since been suspended without pay.

Channel 11 News also reached out to the State Department of Human Services.

“Since the authorities in this case allowed for ARD for the 2001 charges, there was no conviction in this case and would not be included in the criminal history clearance background checks,” Press Secretary Erin James said.

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The Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office told Channel 11 News Laforte was given ARD because of the context of the charges. The DA’s office added Laforte didn’t have a prior criminal history, and the victims would’ve consented to the plea deal.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services said, because of that, it would’ve never been on the employer’s radar.

“Child abuse history clearances provide whether the prospective employee’s name is listed as a perpetrator on a founded or indicated report of child abuse," James said. "We are not aware that there ever was a child abuse report related to the 2001 charges.”

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